British Student Anna (Felicity Jones) meets and falls in love instantly with Jacob (Anton Yelchin) in an Los Angeles college, but when school is over, Anna can’t bear to leave, so she stays on for the summer, overstaying her Visa. But when she comes home to England, she finds that she’s banned from coming back due to her discretion. This puts the whole Atlantic between them as the try to keep their love alive, only seeing each other for the moments when Jacob can manage to cross over to England to visit. While battling immigration, they have to decide whether the love they have for each other is worth the effort tearing them apart.

This is a romantic film, but many people don’t get it because it isn’t cut and cliched like many contemporary films are. This is more realistic, and everything’s not always so pretty when exposed to the light. It’s slower than usual, but that gives them time to develop the characters and sub characters a great deal, and that’s an advantage. It’s a slow, independent type of film, but for what it’s worth, that seems to work. It’s an interesting relationship, and it’s not really boring if you get to know the characters. The ending is the weakest thing, It leaves you a little let down perhaps, but life often does I suppose. All in all, I thought it was pretty well put together, well acted, and if you’re into romance stories with more than usual character development, a strong leading lady, and plenty of romance, then this is not a bad film at all. It won’t be fore everyone, but it’s pretty darn good for most of us. I can recommend this for one of those out of the way films that is worth the watch.

Young rebel (?) Ren MacCormack (Kenny Wormald) comes into a small town run with an iron fist by the town elders led by conservative preacher Rev. Shaw Moore (Dennis Quaid). Rev Shaw’s Daughter, Ariel (Julianne Hough) is a sexy blonde on the edge of her sexuality and attracted to bad boy Ren from the start much to her father’s dismay. The town has outlawed dancing as it leads kids into trouble, but Ren makes it his goal to win Ariel, change her father’s mind, and hold a dance for the poor underprivileged youth of the town.

This remake of of the 1984 version with Kevin Bacon and Lori Singer as the teens, and John Lithgow as the uptight preacher is another remake that didn’t need to be made. I never thought the original was such a wonderful film, but it wasn’t too bad, and somehow it really resonated with a lot of the children of the 80’s. I didn’t think the original was nearly as good as Dirty Dancing was, even though there were some similarities. But this remake just didn’t need to be made.

The down sides are that they twisted and turned the story on it’s side, to try to make it hip for 2011. But they lost a lot of the drama and redeeming qualities of the original trying to make it today!!! Secondly the soundtrack was rather weird too. The mix of songs in the soundtrack seemed like they were trying to find something for everyone from Slim Whitman to Fifty Cent. It didn’t cut it. Julianne Hough has finished her run as a dancing instructor on DWTS, and is ready to move on to acting, and she’s as cute as a button, and maybe someday will turn out to be a decent actress, but she’s not ready yet, especially for this role. But she’s cute. Dennis Quaid did a decent job as the preacher man, but they watered down his role to make it more relevant to the hip hop fans I guess they thought would flock to this film. They didn’t. Trying to compete with John Lithgow’s performance is a tough challenge.

So I have an idea for them to try in the future. Remember how in the “old days” Walt Disney used to re-release his movies every 7 years, because he thought that every 7 years a new generation of kids came along that had never seen the film? Well that doesn’t work so well today, because of DVD’s and Cable TV, and instant downloads, but, when the meeting starts up about “Let’s do a remake of Footloose, because a lot of people loved it in the 80’s. But if you remake it, you have to pay the crew, and all the actors, and everyone, so simply release the original to the theaters. (Maybe you can spend a few bucks to spruce it up and convert it to digital and all that). Then those that never saw it, can go to the theater and enjoy it again. But I think the only ones who loved this remake version were those involved in making the dang thing. What a disappointment that never needed to be done. What a waste.

Brad Harris (Jack Black) is a young gentleman, working full time, but living with Mom and Dad. Brad is constantly put down by his Dad for his hobby of searching for birds. We are told that “A BIG YEAR” is a tradition where someone sets out to try for the worlds record of finding and identifying as many different species of birds as possible in one year, from Jan 1 through Dec 31. Brad is out to do his big year, but the world champion, Kenny Bostick suspicious that someone may be out to take his world record, so he sets out on a clandestine “Big Year” of his own. While on the trail, Brad runs into an elderly birder, Stu Pressler, who single handedly built a huge corporation from scratch, but now wants to retire and do a “Big Year” of his own. Brad and Stu decide the only way to beat Bostick is to work together to help each other, as the three of them travel all over the country to locate the latest rare bird sighting.

I must say that I was completely caught off guard by this movie. I had no expectations going in, and imagine my delight at finding all these people in the film. From the Big 3, to such surprises as Rosamund Pike, Kevin Polak, Joel HcHale, Rashida Jones, JoBeth Wiliams, and more, I was blown away. But
the biggest delight was Anjelica Huston in a charming and very, very funny role. This films was less about the birds, (although I guarantee you’ll learn at least a dozen things you didn’t know before) but the drive, obsession, and disappointment and desperation of this chase. The photography is wonderful and stunning, from the Everglades, to the desert, to the last point of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, and everywhere in-between, the views are spectacular. But the best part is that it is really, really funny. I enjoyed this film from the opening historical montage narrated by John Cleese to the final moments when we find out who had “The Big Year” in the end. I was thoroughly entertained by this movie, and I highly recommend it for adults and kids alike.

And did I tell you about the birdies? Wow. I promise you’ll enjoy this one!

In the future, the U.S. has collapsed and is replaced by Panem, a country divided into 12 districts. Every year, 24 young poeple are selected by lottery, one girl and one boy from each of the 12 districts to compete in the Hunger Games, where they are placed into an arena and forced to fight to the death. Only one winner can come out of the forest arena, but that person will be showered with gifts. When Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence)’s little sister is selected, Katniss volunteers to take her place and fight for District 12, the poorest of the districts. In a four day training excercise with her mentor, Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson) the ill prepared Katniss heads out to fight to the death against those much larger and better trained than she. She will need all her wits and skills to survive in a game where as many die from exposure and hunger as from the other contestants along with Peeta Mellark (Josh Huntcherson) the male counterpart from District 12 and an uneasy alliance they form.

This film, based on the first of a trilogy of books by Suzanne Collins is tearing up the box office! There is a good reason. It is a wonderful story told in a beautiful motion picture. This is a perfect story with heroes and villains, martrys and saviors, good and evil. The casting in the film is just about perfect. They went through dozens of well known actresses before choosing Jennifer Lawrence, and they made the right choice. She is nearly perfect in her portrayal of Katniss. There are some other characters that are also stunning choices. Woody Harrelson is great as Haymitch, the smart-alec hard drinking mentor who blows Katniss off until he realizes that she really does have some skills. Stanley Tucci is Ceasar Flickerman, the long suffering host of the Hunger Games, and a TV personality trying to find drama and humor for the camera in his pre interviews with the tributes. The cinematography is stunning, and the views are spectacular. Most of all, it’s highly believable, and they took a real life approach to the situation rather than depending on our suspension of belief. It seems like it could have really happened. The bad guys are bad, and the good guys are good. Of course the capital is the worst, and Donald Sutherland is the President, and doesn’t ham it up with evilness, but plays a totally believable leader who thinks he’s doing the best for his people, even though something has gone awfully wrong here.

This is a great adventure drama, and one everyone young and old is likely to enjoy. It’s a very good story, and one I highly recommend catching in the theater if at all possible. It’s bound to be a topic of every conversation, so you might as well check it out so you can join in the discussion! I loved it.